This We Do In Remembrance of You, Dan River

On Ash Wednesday, 2014 I began a weekly practice which I called "Coal Ash Wednesdays." I initiated this practice in response to the coal ash spill at the Dan River on February 2 as a means of dealing with my personal sorrow and shame: sorrow from the pollution of this beautiful land that has sustained us, sorrow for the deaths of river wildlife, sorrow for the known health risks coal ash brings to the people living along the river and shame for being a contributing factor to the source of the pollution.

I am a Duke Energy customer.  I rely on this corporation for electricity.  I rely on electricity to maintain a lifestyle of comfort and ease. But Duke Energy creates the bulk of its electricity through the burning of coal which results in the waste product of coal ash. My mindless consumption of electricity is no longer acceptable.

What must I do?  How must I live?  Duke Energy is my only option as a power company.  I am not in a financial or physical place to install solar panels. I either must do without electricity or suck it up and continue to use Duke Energy as my source of it.  Neither of these options appeals to me.  

I decided the best way to express my grief and honor the earth would be to drastically reduce my consumption of electricity.  And at a given time each week, I would cut off the main breaker at my home, completely severing my connection with Duke Energy, for a minimum of one half an hour. I established a page on a social media site to invite others to do the same.  This was the start of Coal Ash Wednesdays.

I launched this initiative on Ash Wednesday for a couple of reasons.  In the Christian tradition, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a period of repentance known as Lent.  For 40 days, believers fast as a means of repenting for their sins and preparing for the return of Christ on Easter Sunday. It is a time of contemplation, mourning and repentance for all the frailties of being human.  Fasting is historically a standard practice during this time.  Over time, fasting has been replaced with the intentional "giving up" of sweets, meat, coffee, wheat and so on.  At a special service on Ash Wednesday, ash is smeared on the foreheads of participants indicating their process of grieving and penance.

The ash that spewed out of the holding ponds at the Duke Energy plant in Eden was toxic.  It destroyed lives in the river and along its banks.  We who consume Duke Energy's product are complicit in this disaster.  We are responsible. So we, the participants of Coal Ash Wednesdays, as a form of grief and penance, gave up a bit of our massive consumption of energy during Lent and beyond. And every Wednesday from 7:30 p.m. til 8:00 p.m. we shut off our main breakers in unison.

On the first Coal Ash Wednesday, people shared photographs of candlelit dinners with family, board games played by the light of a fireplace, sharing a glass of wine with a beloved. By simply cutting off the main breaker to their homes, they stepped out of the frenetic pace of life with its constant bombardment of electronic stimuli, and they interacted with each other.  Face to face. Despite the fact that we were all scattered across different towns, we engaged in an act of communion by uniting in this process of stepping back, taking a breath, listening to silence, enjoying each other's company and intentionally removing our connection to Duke Energy.

In cutting off our main breakers, we completely stop the flow of electrical current into our homes. We temporarily sever our connection with Duke Energy: the corporation that continues to mishandle its coal ash waste, the corporation responsible for the spill in the Dan River, the one never held fully accountable. This severance feels good.  It feels powerful.  It unleashes the imagination to the limitless possibilities we have as good stewards of the planet.

When the main breaker is off, the house feels unnaturally quiet and still. It is as if I can feel the rhythm of the planet rather than the ticking of the electric meter. I feel connected to the land both in my state of quietude and in my intentional act of severance from Duke Energy.

For me, Coal Ash Wednesday is less of a protest and more of a spiritual practice; a "giving up" of electricity in mourning and in penance. But I do like to think that if enough people participate in this act, maybe we can make a statement to Duke Energy will be heard in their profit margins. It's a dream I like to have: that "people have the power to redeem the work of fools."   

On February 2 I've proposed we cut off our main breakers from 7 a,m until noon.  These are peak hours of electric consumption for Duke Energy during the winter months and a time when the rates are a bit higher: $1.20 more per kilowatt-hour. This can result in a big savings on your electric bill if you make shutting off your main breaker a daily or even weekly practice - even if only for one half an hour a week. And any money I don't have to pay to Duke Energy I can use for investing in renewable energy companies or environmental organizations. It is my one small way of working for better energy options.  It is my one small way of giving back to Mother Nature.  It is my way of saying I'm sorry and I'm trying to do better.

Hold the Arsenic

Currently, I work in the juice bar of a "healthy supermarket" called Planet Care.  I put raw vegetables into a very loud industrial strength grinding-things-up machine and their juicy innards flow out of a little drain pipe and into a cup waiting below.  I then serve this cup of juicy innards to a customer who hopes this elixir of life will be the solution to the problems they face - losing weight, remembering important daily details, having energy, having motivation, having the energy to have motivation, being motivated to have energy, living a long and fruitful (or veggie-full) life.  Not to knock it: vegetable juices can be entirely beneficial.  Just not when coupled with a muffin.

The other day, a woman came in and ordered one of our house specials and this is what she said, "I'll have a Red Sunset, light on the arsenic."  I write all orders down because I am often inundated with more orders than I can fill quickly and need to keep tabs on who ordered what first.  So I was writing down "Red Sunset" as the words "light on the arsenic" reverberated in my brain.  I finished writing and looked quizzically at my customer and asked, "Did you say 'light on arsenic'?"  The woman looked at me in earnest and said yes.

I stood there completely befuddled.

I've been obsessively thinking about the coal ash spill in the Dan River.  And arsenic is a component of coal ash.  So naturally, my thoughts were immediately directed there.  To Eden and the Dan River.

~~~

Arsenic? Coal ash.  Dan River.  Eden.  We're not in Eden.  Our water isn't arsenic-laden.  Yet.  Is it?  Oh God!  Is it?!  All those poor fish.  Mussels.  Turtles.  All the plants.  The birds.  The mammals.  The people!!!  All that coal ash.  How can we restore the river?  How? Still, she wants a juice.  What does a vegetable juice have to do with water, either arsenic-laden or regular?  What is she talking about?

~~~

Coal ash is the byproduct of burning coal for the creation of electricity.  Surprisingly, it is "more radioactive" than the waste generated at nuclear power plants according to Scientific American.  Additionally, coal ash contains heavy metals such as arsenic,  and selenium, and cadmium, and mercury, and many others.  But primarily when one talks about the toxins in coal ash, arsenic is at the top of the list.  It is a highly toxic substance.  Carcinogenic even.  The EPA requires that there be no more than 10 parts per billion of arsenic in drinking waters.  And 10 parts per billion of arsenic in commercially produced apple juices, for that matter.  More on that in a moment.

The coal ash contamination of the Dan River occurred an a no longer functioning coal power plant owned by Duke Energy.  Duke Energy generates 70 percent of its electricity via coal.  It is the largest power holding company in the United States.  I get my electricity from Duke Energy.  Currently, I have no alternative energy source.  I am, therefore, responsible in part for the contamination of the Dan River.  And this realization drives me crazy.

I don't want to give Duke Energy my business.  I don't want to perpetuate a reliance on fuels that destroy the land, harm people and pollute the environment.  But I don't have a choice if I want to use my computer, cook my food, read by lamp light and stay warm in the winter months.

I launched an event via Facebook called Coal Ash Wednesdays in order to promote the reduction of energy consumption.  One day a week, anyone who cares to participate cuts their energy use back and from 7 pm til 7:30 pm EST, everyone shuts off the main breaker to their house.  This much is doable.  This much can help.  It's the only thing that makes sense in light of the senseless destruction of life and the local economy along the Dan River.

~~~

Dan River.  Coal ash.  Arsenic.  Juice.  Arsenic and juice.  Red Sunset.  Arsenic....oh!

The juice ordered by the woman wanting light arsenic is called Red Sunset.  Red Sunset contains carrots, beets, apples, parsley and ginger.  In contemplating these ingredients, I remembered a crucial element in solving the mystery of what this customer meant.

There is a misconception that apple seeds contain arsenic.  Apple seeds contain cyanide, an equally poisonous yet completely different compound.  In order for one to die from apple seed ingestion, one would have to pulverize and/or masticate the seeds to break the hard protective coating exposing the inner amygdalin.  One would need to consume a shit ton of these in this manner because the human body is able to detoxify small amounts of cyanide.

At any rate, I remove all the seeds from each apple before I run it through the pulverizing/masticating juice-making machine.

The customer may have been referring to the trace amounts of arsenic found in commercially packaged apple juice.  This is the result of naturally occurring arsenic in the soil and the use of pesticides and herbicides in orchards.  There is organic arsenic, which the human body can process, and inorganic arsenic, which it cannot.  In fact, the inorganic arsenic is a known carcinogen.  Long term exposure  to it can result in especially nasty forms of cancer. But I, the Juicer Person, do not use commercially produced apple juice in the fresh juices.  I juice real live apples.

 ~~~

"Excuse me...but you said 'light on the arsenic...'?

"Yes."

"Do you mean light on the apple?"

"Yes."

"I see.  Alright then.  I was momentarily confused."

"I was wondering....it can't be that complicated."

No.  It's not complicated at all.